Flavorful Friday

In honor of my super-duper cruise I decided today's Flavorful Friday would be something I ate almost every night aboard the Elation! The waiters at our table knew exactly what to bring DH every night for dessert... this, with 3 vanilla ice creams! On the last night he ordered double his usual. Once we got home he had me scouring the internet to find his beloved dessert. Well I finally found it at cruisecritic.com on their boards. Last night I made this heavenly treat and it was just like I remembered! I bought the 7 oz. ramekins at Walmart, a set of two for $5. This recipe fills 6 ramekins. I personally like my center very runny, like hershey's syrup, and last night I baked it for 13 minutes. The center was more like hot fudge. Next time, and there Will be a next time, I'll bake for a minute or two less. I have yet to finish the whole thing... it is sooo rich, but sooo worth it!

Warm Melting Chocolate Cake

8 oz. dark chocolate (you can use 1 1/3 C. semi-sweet choc. chips)

8 oz. butter

5 eggs (room temperature)

5/8 C. sugar

2/3 C. flour

Directions

Melt chocolate & butter over low heat. In mixing bowl, mix eggs and sugar, then add flour. Slowly whisk into the melted chocolate mixture. Pour into greased (i used Baker's Joy) ramekins. (i tried 4 oz. & 7 oz. -- 7 oz. is just too big!) Bake at 400 F for 12-14 minutes. Yield: 36 oz. unbaked batter; 8 servings if you use a 4 oz. ramekin.Adjust times according to the size ramekin you use, and the texture you prefer. In a 4 oz. ramekin for 13 min., the texture on the inside of the cake was a little heavier than pudding, kind of like a loose fudge. I also did some in my convection oven at 350F. 13 minutes in a 4 oz. ramekin yielded a smooth, hot fudge sauce-like center. In the 7 oz. size, 16 min. at 350F in the convection oven produced a pudding-like texture in the middle. Regular oven, 7 oz. size, at 400F, smooth, heavy sauce-like texture resulted after 14 min.

Flavorful Friday

So sorry everyone for not having a picture of this. I really wanted to make it this week but with sick kids, two birthdays, and trying to get my home in order so that I can leave in peace tomorrow... I just haven't had the time. I hope you enjoy and I'll see ya when I get back!

Chocolate Oatmeal Bars



2/3 C. butter or margarine, softened

1 C. packed brown sugar

1/3 C. corn syrup

1 t. vanilla

4 C. quick cooking oats

1 pkg. (11 1/2 ounces) milk chocolate chips

2/3 C. chunky peanut butter

4 Heath candy bars (1.2 ounces), crushed



Directions

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar. Add corn syrup and vanilla; beat well. Stir in oats; press into a greased 13 x 9-in baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

In a microwave or heavy saucepan, melt chocolate chips and peanut butter; stir until blended. Spread over cooled bars. Sprinkle with crushed candy bars. Refrigerate until set before cutting.

Flavorful Friday

One of our favorite meals around here is my Dad's Tuna Noodle Casserole. It makes for an easy fall-back meal for those days when you completely forget about defrosting something. I always have the ingredients on hand. I personally love it with the red bell pepper in it but none of my kids do so it's usually left out. Plus as much as I love the peppers my body doesn't and I end up burping the rest of the night. So I guess the kids not eating them is a good thing... for everybody.

I like to serve this with some green beans and rolls. This recipe is easily doubled and fits well in a 9 x 13 pan, just increase the baking time to 25 minutes.

Tuna or Chicken Casserole
from: My Daddy
serves: 4-5

6 to 9 oz. Pasta (large shells, rigatoni, or noodles)

1 or 2 small cans of tuna or chicken

½ C. mayonnaise

1 C. chopped celery

1 C. shredded Monterrey jack cheese

¼ C. chopped red bell pepper

½ C. milk

1 can cream of mushroom soup

bread crumbs

Directions
Slightly under cook pasta, drain. Combine pasta, meat, mayonnaise
and vegetables. Blend soup and milk, heat. Add cheese to soup
mixture to melt. Add to pasta mix. Turn into 1 ½ quart
casserole dish. Top with bread crumbs and bake at 425` for 20 min.

Flavorful Friday

I thought I'd try doing something new here. I've been seeing a lot of my friends share recipes and I wanted to share some of my own. So I'm starting up "Flavorful Friday"! Let me know if you guys like it and want me to keep going with it.

Last night we went to our ward's Christmas Party. We all had a lot of fun. The kids each had to do something for the entertainment portion. The little kids all got to sing, Zac was one of the Wise Men for the Nativity scene, and Emily, along with the young women, sang. I got to make a dessert to take. One that's always a crowd pleaser is Zebra Cake.


Zebra Cake

1 small box instant chocolate pudding
1 small box instant vanilla pudding
2 C. milk
8 oz. Whipped topping, thawed
2 to 2.5 sleeves of chocolate graham crackers
1 C. Chocolate chips

In two bowls mix puddings separately with 1 C. milk each. Let stand for 5 minutes. Then fold 1/2 of the whipped topping into each bowl. In an 8 x 8 pan layer grahams, 1/2 the chocolate pudding mixture, grahams, 1/2 the vanilla pudding mixture. Repeat. Finish with a layer of graham crackers. Refrigerate for 6 hours. Melt and spread chocolate chips on top. Serves 6 to 8.